Between 2009 and 2014, there were a total of 177 permanent and acting Directors-General (DGs) across all government departments. However, only 19 departments had their DGs complete an entire term. Acting DGs fill the vacant post when Permanent DGs resign or are dismissed. The following infographic will evaluate the relationship ...

Global Legislative Openness Week (GLOW) – 15 to 25 September 2014 – has People's Assembly take a look at what constitutes “parliamentary openness”. GLOW is an initiative of the Legislative Openness Working Group of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) launched in 2011 with South Africa as one of the eight ...

Higher Education South Africa (HESA) met with their oversight committee in Parliament last week to deliberate the internationalisation of higher education; that is, whether an appropriate balance between local and international students and staff should be achieved in South Africa, and the benefits resulting from such internationalisation.

HESA identifies the ...

Author: Ansha Krishnan

“Ubuntu is the essence of being a person, of being human and when we praise somebody, the highest form of praise is saying, ‘Ubuntu’. This person in a sense has got humanness. We are often devastated by the amount of evil that there is in the world ...

The provision of water to poor communities is one of government’s key basic service delivery requirements. Currently, there are still communities without this basic need. According to both the Department of Water and Sanitation and the Department of Water Affairs, the number of communities without access to water is projected ...

The Portfolio Committee on Police recently heard a presentation by the Central Firearms Registry (CFR), where they briefed the department on measures taken to curb gun-homicides and gun-violence in general. The CFR is a subsidiary body of the South African Police Service (SAPS) who are tasked with regulating the country’s ...

Access to electricity is a basic need that cannot be unmet by service delivery inefficiencies. Fortunately, as the Department of Energy (DoE) states, 82% of households are connected to the energy grid, which is largely powered by Eskom. Despite the load-shedding problems associated with the giant electricity provider, government has ...

The conservation of South Africa’s dwindling rhino population took the spotlight when the Department of Environmental Affairs briefed its parliamentary oversight committee on its progress with initiatives to deal with rhino poaching, its current and future interventions, while noting the shortcomings and challenges it faced.

Current interventions sees the department ...

The Department of Energy’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) projects South Africa’s energy capacities for the year 2030. The IRP seeks to diversify our energy sector from being coal-reliant, to one that utilises renewable energy sources to meet our future needs.

But while the capacity to produce more energy is achievable, ...

With the first session of the Fifth Parliament done and dusted, People’s Assembly takes a look at what happened behind the scenes in the halls of the Legislature. The parliamentary review provides a snapshot of the work done by public representatives in the Fifth Parliament, summarising all the facts you ...